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James Commissar

James Commissar

Founder and president of The Comisar Collection and founding executive director of the Museum of Television, renowned pop culture curator of TV and film memorabilia.

Sep 5, 2026

14:10
Was this just on a hanger sitting in somebody's closet all these years? How did you get it? And what was its path from film to James Comisar?
14:20
Well, I wish it came to me hanging on a hanger.
14:23
It was far worse, actually.
14:25
It came to me in a garbage bag.
14:29
As I mentioned, I would put ads in the classified sections of the Los Angeles Times looking for television or film artifacts.
14:40
And it wasn't long that I figured out that I got a lot of calls from people who thought that they had things for the 1939 production of The Wizard of Oz.
14:51
And I would get, you know, back in the day, you had a phone machine, leave your message at the tone beep, and I would get a fair number of calls of, hey, I have a lion costume from what I think is The Wizard of Oz, or I have a Tin Man costume.

17 MINS LATER

32:20
The neat thing about this television, movie, rock memorabilia, all of these pieces are essentially, as they say, a one of one piece.

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